fun times with chronic illness! this is a place to take the piss out of those who would tell us exactly how to better live our lives. unsolicited medical advice, ignorant comments, should's and ought to's... you've got to laugh or you might hit someone!

April 18, 2008

bottoms up! drink to your health.

i have a cold right now and can't really think too clearly. perhaps all i need to do is rely on some old-time remedies. i'll enter the way-back machine, arrive at 1897, and look to the british medical journal for advice:

like many ads today, this one doesn't say why the "medical faculty" is endorsing this product, but just having that stamp of approval solidifies the message that this whiskey is good for your health. i bet it would ease my sore throat better than a stupid warm water and salt gargle!

i'll stay in the late 1800's and follow up my shot of seven year old whiskey with a bubbly glass of coca cola. i don't know about you, but a cold makes my head hurt and my brain very foggy. i'm tired and slow and i guess all i really need is a coke:

this may have been when coke had that special "extra ingredient," i'm not sure. all i know is that it must taste better than this hot lemon juice, ginger, garlic and cayenne drink i have in front of me!

now, if i could only find the year that "pink pills for pale people" were made...

Sorry to hear you're sick. I hate being sick with a virus on top of all my other stuff, so I imagine you feel pretty rough right now. I think Coca Cola had cocaine in it up until 1905 or something like that, so this drink would definitely clear your head for a bit! I bet it was better than Red Bull.

the things people say!

here is a collection of the sublime and the ridiculous. from the pearls of wisdom that have been dropped on me over the years to big pharma's wild claims. from the doctor's office to the grocery store. it's an advice saturated world and those of us who are chronically ill are the perfect targets for the clever, the clueless, the well-meaning, the way-out-of-line who are bursting with insights on how to feel better, live our lives better, or how to just get the hell over it already.

do post your own encounters with the well and their words of wisdom! this is also a great place to share stories, vent and laugh!

my chronic qualifications

I have chronic pain and fatigue--it's the result of too many car accidents, fibromyalgia, degenerative disc disease, osteoarthritis, thoracic outlet syndrome, and some other causes that have yet to be determined. That's the chronic stuff; my list of interests fleshes things out a bit more.

why "chronic holiday"?

one afternoon, i was hanging out with some folks in my neighbourhood when a fellow asked me if i worked in the area. i replied that i had chronic pain and was unable to work. "oh," he said. "unfortunately, i am able to work."

well. i was dumbfounded and he walked away. i wish i had said something clever like "yeah, i'm on a chronic holiday. it's great! lucky me."

this site isn't about clever retorts, but it is about the strangethings that people sayto those who live with chronic illness.